Improve Your Productivity on the Web with RescueTime

The Internet is no doubt one of the greatest technological innovations in history. It allows you to do research, entertain yourself, and communicate with others in other parts of the world. However, the problem is that the Internet is just too useful at times. Since the Web is fraught with information and activities, you can easily find yourself distracted. For instance, if you are trying to write an essay, you may find yourself making frivolous tweets on Twitter or spending countless time chatting with your friends on Facebook. I myself have to truly focus while writing this. What if there is a way you can improve your productivity on the Web without having to rely on shear willpower alone? – A Web app known as RescueTime may be an ideal solution to your problem.

What is RescueTime and How Does it Work?

As its name implies, the primary objective of this Web app is to help you “rescue” valuable time from the plethora of distractions on the Internet. It does this by monitoring the amount time you spend on specific websites. It also categorizes the sites you visit. RescueTime allows you select the categories that you consider to be distracting and the ones that you think are productive. This gives you an overview of your daily activities on the Web. This also allows you to accurately see how much time you waste on websites that are distracting.

How to Use RescueTime:

RescueTime is relatively easy to use. The app does most of the functions by itself. All you have to do is install it, select your preferences, and monitor your productivity on the Web.

Once you have downloaded the app, you will see the icon on the top-right side of the screen. To start setting up RescueTime, move the cursor to the top-right corner of the window and then click the “RescueTime” icon.

Type your email inside the “Your Email Address” box and then click “Sign Up.” It will then ask you to select a password and confirm your email address. Once you have done all of this, you will have a RescueTime account.

After creating an account, RescueTime will walk you through the setup. The first things you will see are a red and green column. You can select the categories you consider distracting from the red column and the ones you consider productive from the green column. Select the categories of your preference and proceed.

You can narrow down the specifications further by allowing it to track all sites or only specific sites.

You will be asked some additional questions. Answer the questions and then click “I’m Done.” Now you are ready to monitor your productivity.

It will take about a week for RescueTime to collect information to give you an accurate overview. However, it will always tell you whether a site is distracting or not. To find out if a site is distracting or not, simply click the “RescueTime” icon from the top-right corner of the screen. Because a site like MakeTechEasier matches my preferences, it is rightfully labeled as very productive.

Does RescueTime Really Improve Your Web Productivity?

RescueTime can certainly help improve your productivity on the Web. It allows you to see just how much time you waste browsing through unnecessary websites. By reviewing your browsing habits, you will be able to use your time more productively. In the end, it is only up to improve your productivity.

RescueTime will not automatically make you more productive. You must acknowledge your negative browsing habits and cultivate a need to change them. RescueTime is not perfect. It only gives you a general idea of your browsing habits. You will have to discern how to use the data to ameliorate your browsing habits.

One comment

Nice review of Rescue Time Juderson. I think this can help those tech savvy productivity seekers but I also think there should be other alternatives for the more casual browser. In general, we need more tools and platforms that are built with helping users create better digital habits in mind. It’s hard in the world of pageviews and time spent on site to actually propose to tell the user she’s had enough and to get offline! But that’s where I think some of technology is headed. I’m working on Skim.Me (http://skim.me) with the goal of making your daily browsing more productive and efficient by promoting such experiences as scheduled and timed browsing batches. A small step towards what I believe is a growing trend.